Possum Hunting

I’m running a little behind. We were in Vacation Bible School all week, and then spent yesterday playing house cleaning catch-up.


Where ever you are, I hope you are getting cool temperatures and rain. We are getting neither. If you are in the midst of a drought/heat wave like we are, and you are reading this blog, I probably don’t need to tell you to look out for the four-legged members of your family. This heat is hard on them too. Three of the four cats usually come in long enough to eat this time of year, and head right back out. This last week they’ve spent more time indoors.

The dogs, however, seem to be having the opposite reaction. Here lately, they’ve barely given us enough time to put out fresh food and water. Particularly Libby, who comes in, checks out the scrap bowl to see if there is something she might be interested in eating, and goes right back out. Meeko, at least, wants to say hello to us too. Of course, if it’s in the scrap bowl, he’ll eat it. We’re not sure what’s going on out there that is so interesting in this heat, but we aren’t going to force them to stay in. They have plenty of shade and fresh water. Libby has dug herself a nice crater to lie in.

A few times a year, some unfortunate, or maybe just intellectually challenged, critter finds itself on the wrong side of the fence. We’ve found at least three raccoons and two ‘possums “treed”. When that happens, there is no doubt as to their interest in being outside. They let us know right away.

Meeko, who is two years old now, has developed a deep, beautiful, big dog voice. When he gets excited however, he still reverts to a puppy yip that travels for miles and has the same effect as nails on chalkboard. A few days last week, he was very interested in something under the dog house, and was yipping quite a bit. Ed went out to look from the outside of the fence, but didn’t see anything. Since Libby wasn’t interested in whatever it was, we really didn’t think much of it.

We’ve decided, after much research and thought, that the part of Libby that is not Lab is probably Husky, or something close to that. Although, she too, has a big dog bark, when she gets excited, the sounds coming from her sound like nothing any dog should make… ever. The first time I heard it, I thought she was dying. Have you ever seen the Husky saying “I love you” on YouTube? It’s kind of like that…at least parts of it is. Because it’s not an all the time thing for her, when she starts making that noise, we investigate. Normally, its buzzards flying too close for her comfort (she REALLY has a thing about birds), or someone riding an ATV (she hates them) or something like that. A few days after Meeko started yipping at the dog house, Libby started making that noise. I went out where I could see the back of the dog house. They were both trying to dig their way in. I went to get Ed.

We made the dogs come inside and then we went out. You have to understand, the navigable space behind the dog house is about five square feet…maybe. Not really enough room to lie down in, which is what we needed to do to see. Neither one of us was crazy about sticking our face in there either. We were both thinking it might be a snake. Anyway, Ed finally managed to get himself where he could see (this is how we found out the electric fence is off…as long as the dogs don’t know), and I got myself where I could hold the flashlight where it would do some good.

It was a ‘possum. Ok so how are we going to get him out? Ed got a stick and tried to shove him out (remember the maneuverability issue?) After some grunting, groaning, and mild cursing, Ed got the stick in behind the critter, which ran out the other side. It was a baby, probably about the same size as a four month old kitten. If a ‘possum can be cute, this one was!

The little thing scampered up the hill, up a tree, and across the fence to freedom, as Ed and I tried to extricate ourselves from behind the dog house. He had better luck than we did, but we finally managed to get up and out too.

I think the dogs were a little annoyed. About ten minutes after we let them back out, we checked on them. They were both sitting there looking at us, like “What did you do with it? Ed, did you eat our ‘possum?”

At least it’s quiet…for now.